Dissolving Marriage

Stanley Kurtz

If everything is marriage, then nothing is.

Canada, you don't know the half of it. In mid-January, Canada was rocked by news that a Justice Department study had called for the decriminalization and regulation of polygamy. Actually, two government studies recommended decriminalizing polygamy. (Only one has been reported on.) And even that is only part of the story. Canadians, let me be brutally frank. You are being played for a bunch of fools by your legal-political elite. Your elites mumble a confusing jargon to your face to keep you from understanding what they really have in mind.

Language Exam

Let's try a little test. Translate the following phrases into English:

Canada needs to move "beyond conjugality."

Canada needs to "reconsider the continuing legal privileging of marriage and other conjugal relationships."

Once gay marriage is legalized, Canada will be able to "consider whether the legal privileges and burdens now assigned to marriage and other conjugal relationships can be justified."

Canada needs to question "whether conjugality is an appropriate marker for determining legal rights and obligations."

[Answers: The English translation of #1,# 2, and #4 is: "Canada should abolish marriage."
The translation of #3 is: "Once we legalize gay marriage, we can move on to the task of abolishing marriage itself."]

Read the entire article on the National Review website (new window will open).